do you clean scopes too?

[paula77720]

Hi all,

I just started working in the gastroenterologist office and although im still in nursing school, i am being trained to work as a GI nurse. I assist the Doctor with the procedures and also the Anaesthesiologist. I asssist in removal of polyps, etc. When the procedure is done i cleaned the scope and get the next patient ready. Its really interesting and i love it! Cleaning the scope is tedious though because you have to sterilize then suction continuously. But im getting used to it now. Just make sure the chemical doesnt touch my eyes and skin. I cant wait till i master the little tricks of the trade.

[JEEMA]

Yes, we clean the sopes in our department. We have limited number of scopes and we have lots of appointments.

They say scopes can't be sterilized, only disinfected. We have a washer-disinfector machine in our department. We disinfect our biopsy forceps thru it as well, then it is used for the next patient.

We dont send thesethings and other accessories for sterilization. We just soak them in Cidex OPA which makes our consumption more than necessary.

My senior seem to be still in ancient nursing We even wipe the scopes with washable abdominal pads. Infection control doesnt seem to visit us and check:(

I thought it's only us who clean scopes. Other hospitals in our area send it to CSD.

I can't picture yourdescription of cleaning the scope.

[carcha]

yeah here in ireland we clean our scopes in the or too, I personally I enjoy it, dont ask me why, but I do!

[LibraSun]

The Endoscopy suite where I work highly disinfects the scopes. And our dilators are highly disinfected. Our forceps are sent to CS. The forceps ,if they are reusable, should be sterilized, as they come in contact with tissue and have significant potential for infection.

We have a tech that does most of the scopes, however all the RNs can clean scopes and we relieve him for lunch, etc. The on call team is RNs so we have to be able to do everything.

I understand the attraction of cleaning scopes, though. It is kind of mindless and without any stress (of course, we have plenty of scopes!).

[EndoRN]

We have a scope tech, also. However, she tends to wander.

So we end up washing a lot of the scopes ourselves. It's pretty easy. We wash it down/ brush the channels and suction it out. Then it goes in the washer. We use the Olympus DSD. It disinfects w/Cidex OPA and has three rinse cycles. Then an air/alcohol purge.

We use to sterilize using the Steris machine. It used hot water and paracetic acid. It was a lot faster but extremely caustic to our scopes. We send out a lot less scopes for repair of holes now!

Amy :)

[ENDOgal]

We also use the olympus/ with cidex. Everything is done in our department.